As disasters continue to increase in frequency and scope across the world, the
World Food Programme-led Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) and the
International Telecommunication Union Development Sector (ITU-D) have jointly
developed a resource to enable emergency telecommunications preparedness for
disaster management.

This Emergency Telecommunications Preparedness Checklist examines “readiness”
in four key thematic areas:

I. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT: ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES & COORDINATION PROVISIONS
II. EXTERNAL COORDINATION WITH KEY STAKEHOLDERS
III. CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: TRAININGS AND SIMULATION EXERCISES
IV. INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY: REQUIREMENTS, PLANNING AND MAINTENANCE

The finds will be useful for consideration in national emergency telecommunication
preparedness plans and roadmaps, including the development of national emergency
telecommunications plans.

The Checklist adopts a simple scoring approach (percentage calculation for each thematic
area), to assess the status of progress in each thematic area – also beneficial for measuring
and comparing progress in emergency telecoms “readiness” over time.

This Emergency Telecommunications Preparedness Checklist focuses on understanding
national readiness to enable communications in a disaster scenario, together with identifying
targeted areas which may require attention. While intended for use by national governments,
it is also an open resource for the humanitarian community at large.